Top advisers depart from Hickenlooper campaign

Former governor has repeatedly warned other presidential hopefuls against socialism

Nicholas Riccardi
Associated Press

Posted 7/5/19

Top members of former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's campaign are departing in a major shakeup as the brewpub owner-turned-politician tries to turn around his struggling presidential bid. Campaign …

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Top advisers depart from Hickenlooper campaign

Former governor has repeatedly warned other presidential hopefuls against socialism

Posted
Friday, July 5, 2019 10:50 am

Hickenlooper

Nicholas Riccardi
Associated Press

Top members of former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's campaign are departing in a major shakeup as the brewpub owner-turned-politician tries to turn around his struggling presidential bid.

Campaign manager Brad Komar and national finance director Dan Sorenson have left the campaign. Spokeswoman Lauren Hitt confirmed their departures and said she, too, will exit the campaign in the coming weeks.

The departures come after the close of the second quarter of campaign fundraising. Hickenlooper is expected to lag well behind the Democratic National Committee's benchmark of 130,000 donors needed to qualify for the debate stage in September — one of several candidates who could fail to meet that threshold.

Hickenlooper, who served two terms as governor of a swing state, has struggled to gain attention in the crowded Democratic field. He has touted moderate positions and repeatedly warned Democrats they risk being tagged as socialists by tacking too far to the left.

But with several candidates, and many Democratic voters, embracing more liberal positions, Hickenlooper's message — or at least the messenger — has failed to resonate. He was roundly booed last month at the California Democratic Party convention when he condemned socialism.

Hickenlooper's team projected optimism about the future, announcing that the candidate had hired a new campaign manager, M.E. Smith.

At least one of Hickenlooper's departing staffers was headed to a rival campaign. Sorenson, the finance director, will join former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke's campaign, O'Rourke's team confirmed late July 1.

“We are disgusted by the behavior of the officers in Minnesota,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock told members of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. “Those were bad cops, and if they work for any sheriff in this room they would have been fired just the same.”